Mark Zuckerberg, chief govt officer of Meta Platforms Inc., throughout an interview on “The Circuit with Emily Chang” at Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, California, US, on Thursday, July 18, 2024.
Jason Henry | Bloomberg | Getty Pictures
A bipartisan group of lawmakers despatched Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg a letter on Thursday expressing concern that the corporate is failing to stop illicit drug commercials from operating on its platform.
The Home members cited latest studies from The Wall Road Journal and nonprofit Tech Transparency Challenge, which uncovered a flood of advertisements on Fb and Instagram that pointed customers to third-party companies the place they may buy prescription tablets, cocaine and different leisure medicine.
“On March 16, 2024, the Wall Road Journal reported that U.S. federal prosecutors have been investigating Meta for facilitating the sale of illicit medicine,” the lawmakers wrote. “As a substitute of shortly addressing the problem and absolutely eradicating the illicit content material, on July 31, 2024, the Wall Road Journal once more reported that Meta was ‘”operating advertisements on Fb and Instagram that steer customers to on-line marketplaces for unlawful medicine.'”
Most troubling, they wrote, is that Meta continues to run advertisements regardless of the corporate going through an investigation by U.S. federal prosecutors “for facilitating the sale of illicit medicine.”
The letter’s 19 authors embrace Reps. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) and Lori Trahan (D-Mass.). They famous that the illicit drug advertisements have been “authorised and monetized by Meta” and that they weren’t hidden on the darkish internet or personal social media pages. Media shops and researchers might simply discover the advertisements, which contained “contained blatant references to unlawful medicine,” whereas Meta’s inside processes apparently missed them.
“Time and time once more we’ve heard from Meta that customers come to your platforms as a result of they just like the personalization and experiences you present, and you utilize delicate private data to direct such personalization via content material and commercials,” the lawmakers wrote. “We in Congress, on a number of events, have labored to ascertain knowledge privateness and safety protections for People however have, in every occasion, been met with friction and opposition from Meta with claims that we’d drastically disrupt this personalization you might be offering.”
They despatched Zuckerberg an inventory of 15 questions meant to uncover extra particulars about how Meta is addressing the issue, and requested him to reply by Sept. 6.
Meta confirmed receipt of the letter and stated it plans to reply. The corporate shared with CNBC the identical assertion it gave the Journal for its preliminary story.
“Drug sellers are criminals who work throughout platforms and communities, which is why we work with legislation enforcement to assist fight this exercise. Our programs are designed to proactively detect and implement in opposition to violating content material, and we reject tons of of hundreds of advertisements for violating our drug insurance policies. We proceed to speculate assets and additional enhance our enforcement on this sort of content material. Our hearts exit to these affected by the tragic penalties of this epidemic – it requires all of us to work collectively to cease it.”
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